It has been 2.5 years since I last did an episode for Public Speaking Power. Now I am back and here are my plans for the future.

Hi and welcome back to Public Speaking Power. It has been a long two and a half years since I’ve created a serious episode for publicspeakingpower.com but I’m back and I’m back with a vengeance. I’m excited to have you here as my audience. I’m excited to be here to present to you guys and to teach you as much as I can about public speaking.

I have a lot of unique experiences and a lot of unique thoughts on public speaking. I go against the grain in terms of what some experts say, the way a lot of people approached teaching public speaking. That makes it really exciting for me to be able to share these ideas with you guys, to be able to connect with all of you and hopefully help you on your journey to become a public speaker.

When I created Public Speaking Power all those years ago my life was very very different. I was working a full-time job as a pharmaceutical rep. Originally, I was doing sales over the phone and then I ended up doing sales in person, doing presentations to pharmacy staff and things like that.

I was doing some public speaking but I wasn’t doing a great deal. It was more one-on-one sort of sales staff I would do presentations to and things like that. I was young. I still am young, I’m only twenty-eight but I was passionate about public speaking. However, I didn’t really have my thoughts formed about how I thought public speaking should be taught or have ideas about how is the best way to go about public speaking, etc. Fast forward two and a half years to where we are today.

Two and a half years ago I quit my six-figure full-time job to work for myself online to run websites which is what I do originally. That started out as blog post but that soon progressed into podcast and into videos. Now I spend basically all my days creating videos, creating content, speaking to people about a whole different range of subjects – everything from property investing in Australia to my favourite game which is Super Smash Brothers Melee to public speaking to a whole bunch of different smaller websites that I have. T

herefore I spent a lot of time creating episodes and presenting content. In order to do that, I decided to cut down on the editing time and the things that I do. So most of the content I create if not all of it, I created in one go and I create a lot of it off the cuffs. I might write a basic outline but I don’t even have an outline for this episode but I may write a basic outline and follow that. But I would not write out a speech. I give a lot of presentations where I’m talking off the cuffs or I just have a rough guideline that I’m going to use.

Over those two and a half years I created hundreds of videos and my public speaking has improved. I feel like I’m at the point now where I’ve got something that I can add to the public speaking community. That I’ve got something that I can add to your content base, inspire you guys and help you think more differently about public speaking or become more passionate about it as well. This episode is really just kind of a very casual podcast episode where I’m telling you guys about me coming back to Public Speaking Power and talking about what I’m going to do.

The plans that I have for public speaking at the moment aren’t going to be creating video and audio content. I will get those transcribed which will go on the blog but the focus is definitely around the presentations. If you like public speaking, chances are you are going to want to watch public speaking. More and more of us are watching videos these days anyway so that makes a lot of sense to do that. Plus, that’s how I create content. I will be creating a lot of videos. The content will be mostly just me talking. There will be some interviews in there but these are mainly as people approach me to be interviewed and to get access to the audience.

Public Speaking Power gets so many people coming to it. We’re talking about thousands of people every single day. So you guys deserve some fresh content. You guys deserve some good content. There’ll be some interviews, there’ll be some stuff that I create just from my own knowledge and what I think people know about. I will be taking questions as well and specifically answering people’s questions or creating episodes around people’s questions.

For example, someone said one of the issues they have is that they have a really shaky voice. People need to learn how to talk slow when giving a speech. Someone wants to know how to deliver content more effectively. Someone wants help with PowerPoint presentations. Someone else wants help with persuasive speaking.

The questions that are coming from the community are so powerful in guiding me in terms of the content that I create for you guys. If you are listening to this and if you have ideas of episodes you would like integrated or questions that you have, please get in contact with me. Just go over to the website at www.publicspeakingpower.com and hit the contact bar and get in contact with me to let me know. I will be creating content for questions. I’ll be creating content from things that I know people should know about; that I know people is searching for, etc.

There is a lot of great stuff coming down the pipeline. I don’t have a set schedule at the moment of how much speaking I’ll be doing and of how often I’ll be releasing these episodes. However, I’m hoping that it will build up over time and eventually we’ll have something every single week for Public Speaking Power. We will see how it goes. It’s a little side project for me but it is not the main focus of my online business as it doesn’t generate the bulk of my income or anything like that.

It is never going to be the pure focus of my business. We are not going to see daily episodes or anything like that but it is a little side owner for me and it is something that I want to expand. There are so many people coming that I want to help you guys out. I am not a perfect public speaker.

I just want to say that I do not dress up for the occasion. As a result, a lot of times especially in my older videos my framing was really poor. If you are watching the video you will see that I am super close to the camera. You basically only see my head and I often have scruffy hair. At the moment I just had a haircut and so it’s nice and short on the sides but often it would scruffy. I wear casual clothing. I do not dress up as that is not who I am. I’m 28 years old and I am a vegetarian, almost vegan. I got three kids and I home schooled one of my kids. I am a very cosy kind of guy. I play a video game competitively.

I’m quite a random person and not someone who dresses up in a suit and a tie and that’s not someone that I’m going to be to you. Therefore, if you’re looking for someone that is going to dress up and give you formal presentations and things like that, I’m not your man. However, if you want someone who is passionate about public speaking, someone who knows a lot about how to present, someone who presents a lot online, who gives a lot of videos, who has experience presenting in person, if you want to learn from someone that believes in public speaking as a communication forum then you should stay tune because this is for you.

However, if you want hoity-toity, if you want me to wear a tie, unfortunately that’s not going to happen. You can try but it’s not going to happen. I do wear ties to weddings so if I have to give a presentation at a wedding you will see me in a tie. Otherwise, I will rarely wear a tie and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.

I’ll be talking about how to communicate effectively which is what I believe public speaking is. I’m not too focused on your appearance and things like that. I’m more focused on you being yourself which is how I believe people need to get their message across by being themselves. That’s the most effective way to do it and I will be talking about that in upcoming episodes.

I want to take this time to welcome you back to Public Speaking Power. I’m excited to be here again. We got a new website designed over publicspeakingpower.com which you can go ahead and check out. There is a free crash course there if you’re interested in learning more about public speaking. Otherwise, just hit subscribe either on YouTube or iTunes.

I look forward to sharing more information with you in upcoming episodes. In these episodes, I’m going to be talking about, “How to speak less ordinary.” That is going to be my tagline for the foreseeable future. How to speak less ordinary – that’s what I want to get across to you guys. I don’t want you to be boring, ordinary public speakers. I want you to be lively engaging that people really feel like they are with you. That’s it from me. So until next time, be less ordinary

We celebrated my sister’s wedding recently where my Dad delivered a great Father of the Bride speech. It was funny and well delivered and brought tears to some eyes as well.

And so I spoke to him about how he went about creating that speech and what tips he could offer to any other dads out there who need to create a Father of the Bride speech.

Tip#1: Address the formalities

There are some aspects of the Father of the Bride speech that you need to address.

Traditional Father of the Bride speeches would once have involved reading out telegrams from absent guests. We don’t get many telegrams these days but it is still important to read out congratulatory messages and well-wishes from anyone who couldn’t attend the wedding.

You should also extend your gratitude to the guests who are present. Thank everyone on behalf of the bride and groom for being there and thank them from travelling from their homes – particularly if they are from interstate or overseas.

Other standard aspects of the Father of the Bride speech involve things like complimenting the bridesmaids and checking with the bride as to what she wants – or doesn’t want – included in the speech.

Tip#2: Speak about the happy couple

Then you have to welcome the groom into the family. Speak about the groom and your feelings towards him as the man in your daughter’s life.

You would then progress to talking about your daughter herself. Offer the couple compliments and extend your good wishes for their future together.

Tip#3: Give yourself plenty of time

Don’t leave your Father of the Bride speech until last minute. This is something that you should start working on as soon as possible.

A good idea is to decide on the central theme and to then structure the rest of your speech around that idea.

Think of it as a jigsaw puzzle. You have your main concept or the picture of what you want to present. Bring in all the different elements – the formalities of thanking people and welcoming the groom into the family and talking about your daughter and so forth – and put the pieces together.

Tip#4: Use humour and poignancy

A little bit of humour can be a great aspect of a Father of the Bride speech.

A few humorous remarks will be well-received and can show your enthusiasm for the event. One way to do this is through the stories that you tell.

Stories about your daughter and her soon-to-be husband will hopefully come naturally. Speak from the heart and talk about what elements of the bride and groom you most admire.

Remember – the Father of the Bride speech should compliment the couple. The Best Man may tell embarrassing stories or poke fun, but the cringe-factor is not for the dad.

End on a fairly poignant note if you can.

Ideally your speech will be short and sharp. You want to be within a three to five minute timeframe. Remember that there will be a lot of speeches at a wedding.

Tip#5: Familiarise yourself with your speech

Don’t push yourself to memorise the entire speech if you can’t. You can easily provide yourself with notes and cue-cards to guide yourself through the speech.

But you should definitely be familiar with speech so that you can offer a smooth and confident delivery.

One way to do this is with your mobile phone or other recording device. Read from your notes and record yourself speaking. Then play it back to yourself. This is a great way to hear if things aren’t flowing consistently or if you’re speaking too fast or too slow.

Tip#6: Practise with someone else

You obviously want your speech to be a surprise for the bride and groom. But it’s a good idea to practise in front of someone else. This could be your spouse or another child or a good friend.

Speaking in front of somebody will help you recognise when something doesn’t flow. You can also benefit from any advice that they have to offer.

Don’t be afraid to change your speech if something isn’t quite working. But also don’t feel like you have to change your speech. Accept or reject the advice as you see fit. Ultimately the Father of the Bride speech will be your own.

Tip#7: Have two copies of your speech

It’s always good to have a back-up plan. You don’t want to be caught unaware if something should go missing. Have two neatly-written copies of your speech and keep track of where they are at all times!

And don’t rely on your mobile phone or any other device. It’s always safer to have a paper-copy of your speech.

Another good idea is to bump up the font size. Do anything that will make giving your speech easier for you.

Tip#8: Use pauses

You need to pause for reaction.

This is not only important in getting a laugh from your jokes but also in building emotion.

Tip#9: Use eye contact

Look at the groom when you’re speaking about the groom. Like at the bride when you’re speaking about the bride. And try to look around the room in general as you’re talking.

This will help to engage the audience and communicate your message.

Tip#10: Hold the alcohol

Save the glass of red until after the speech.

You want to have a clear head as you’re speaking. You will have earned a drink when you’re finished!

Feel free to get in touch if you have any more questions about creating your Father of the Bride speech. My email is ryan@publicspeakingpower.com. I’ll be happy to forward any questions or advice on to my Dad.

I recently interviewed my father – a member and regular frequenter of Toastmasters – and got some information from him about what it would be like to go to one of these meetings for the first time.

I know there’s a lot of people who want to attend a toastmasters event but are too scared to actually go. The whole point of Toastmasters is to become more confident in public speaking so it really is a great thing to become involved in.

Here’s some information about what it is like to go to a Toastmasters meeting for the first time.

Toastmasters around the world

There are approximately 14,500 Toastmasters clubs in 122 countries around the world.

It’s a fairly big organisation that serves the purpose of instilling confidence. It brings people forward and helps them with their public speaking skills for both their working and personal lives.

There’s probably going to be a Toastmasters near you regardless of where you live.

Public speaking and learning how to do that is very important if we want to get ahead in life. Toastmasters is also a great way of meeting new people with a common interest. So do explore your area and see what you can find.

Finding Toastmasters

Finding a Toastmasters meeting could be as simple as doing a search on Google. Look around your local area. There might be three or four within your region.

You could otherwise find a friend or colleague who already participates. You could then attend a meeting as their invited guest. You don’t have to join the club in order to see what the meetings are like.

Be a guest of Toastmasters…

You would be introduced to the members of the meeting upon your arrival. But you then would have the option to speak and take part or to simply observe the proceedings. The choice is yours.

…Or show up alone

You don’t have to be a guest – or a member – in order to see what a Toastmaster meeting is like.

Many people will travel to different cities to see what their Toastmasters clubs are like and will be welcomed warmly.

You can just turn up at any club. And there is no need to RSVP. Just turn up!

Visit different Toastmasters Clubs

It’s a good idea is to look at a couple of different clubs before you join any. Some of the clubs are structured differently to others. Some are more formal and some are more informal. Some will have as few as six members and others could have over two dozen. There are also different zone meetings where things get bigger and you go down to different area competitions.

Go to a couple of clubs and see which one you like.

The thing about Toastmasters is that they will welcome you in with open arms. There’s no ownership of Toastmasters. It is owned by the members – the more, the merrier. They’re going to welcome you. It’s all about bringing people on.

Dress code

There is no strict dress code at Toastmasters.

This could be affected by the clubs’ premises. My father’s Toastmasters meetings are held in a licensed RSL Club at Cronulla. So obviously you need to be fairly well presented when you turn up.

But it’s important to be comfortable. This will make you more confident.

Smart-casual is usually a good choice. You’ll feel comfortable and you’ll fit in easily.

Meeting proceedings

Business meeting

First is a business meeting. They look at correspondence and see what information has been sent in from Toastmasters International.

They will address any pressing issues. This could include things like raising money to buy a new microphone or discussing the filming of members’ speeches.

Table Topics

Then after the formalities are over they have “Table Topics”.

This activity is based on impromptu speaking. One of the Toastmasters for that week will have been given the task of preparing this. Every member gets an impromptu question and will speak about that topic for a minute and a half.

The overall topic might be “song titles” or “movie titles”. You then might get the title Batman. And you’d then stand up and speak for a minute and a half about the time you put on a Batman cape and jumped off the top of the wardrobe and broke your leg. Speak about anything that flows!

It’s the sort of thing that helps you in conversation when you’re out. Impromptu speaking makes you a bit of a conversationalist.

Again, guests and first-time attendees have the choice to opt-out of any activity that they don’t wish to participate in. But they are also free to stand up and have a crack at it.

After Table Topics there is normally a ten to fifteen minute break. People have a cup of tea and a general chat with fellow members.

Speeches

And then you come back and that’s when the fun starts. They have about four speakers for the evening who would have worked their way through the various manuals.

The first manual is the complete communications manual. (We will go into more detail about the Toastmasters manuals in the next video.)

Each speaker will have their own topic and will give their speech. They will then be evaluated by another member in the Toastmasters group. They give you salient points on what you did well and what you could improve upon.

This will help you to build your confidence and become a better speaker over time.

After the meeting

At the end of the meeting the Toastmaster in charge will invite you to make a comment about the event. This is like an open forum where you can say as much or as little as you like.

Then you will likely speak with the VPE – the Vice President of Education – or someone who’s in charge of new members.

Obviously they would give you the option to go back as a guest a number of times to see if that’s the club you want to join.

And again I would stress that it’s probably advisable to have a look a couple of different clubs around where you are. You might find one where you just click with everybody.

Impromptu speaking is one of the best skills people can have because it helps to override one of the key fears associated with public speaking – the fear of stammering and failing and having nothing to say.

By becoming a great impromptu speaker you know that you can pick up the conversation from any point – no matter what happens.

A lot of people say they are too scared to go to Toastmasters. But that’s why they should go!

It really does give you the confidence to meet people. It’s not even just public speaking. It’s general discussions. It’s going out to a dinner party. It’s meeting a girl or a boy and striking up a conversation. It’s having the confidence to be able to stand and carry a conversation from beginning to end.

Toastmasters are very welcoming and offer a great environment where you can learn and better yourself as a public speaker. I hope that this information has given you the courage to go and check them out for yourself.

Getting up to do a speech that you weren’t prepared for can be a very frightening experience. But there are some things that you can do in advance that can help you deliver great impromptu speeches no matter what situation you’re in.

Impromptu speaking is being able to speak on the spot on any given topic. You need to be able to deliver it with ease and with confidence. But impromptu speaking is something that you can learn over time and you can become better at.

So here are my five tips to help you improve and become a better impromptu speaker.

Tip#1: Anticipate the possibility

Tip number one is to anticipate the possibility of being asked to give an impromptu speech.

Don’t cower in a corner and pray that you won’t be picked. We can actually anticipate getting chosen to deliver a speech.

This doesn’t have to be a big deal. Simply consider what you would do if you were asked to deliver a speech. Come up with ideas for things that you could speak about.

Anticipating these impromptu speeches before they happen will put you in a better mental state when they do occur. This will help you to avoid the “deer in the headlights” syndrome. Anticipate any speeches and you will be less likely to freeze or panic in front of your audience.

Tip#2: Understand mini-speech structures

Tip number two is to understand mini-speech structures.

This will help you to quickly craft impromptu speeches if you’re asked to give a toast or a presentation on short notice. Here are a few examples.

Story-based: Deliver a story and then deliver the core message or moral of the story. This is a very easy mini-speech structure that you can use when you’re getting up to deliver an impromptu speech.

PREP: This is Point-Reason-Example-Point. Deliver your point then give your reason for delivering that point. Then give an example of why you’re right and close by restating the point again.

Pros and Cons: Open up the topic and give the various pros and cons. Then offer a conclusion that states whether it is good or not. This is a very simple mini-speech structure as well.

Tip#3: Archive your life stories

Tip number three is to archive stories of your own life in your mind.

Make a mental note of the different aspects that you encounter in your everyday life. This could be an important news story you’ve read or an interesting fact you’ve learned or something exciting that happened to you.

Archive these stories in your mind and – perhaps more importantly – remember the core message attached to the story.

Here’s an example. Yesterday I was swimming in the pool with my children. I was blowing raspberries on my son’s cheek and he was cackling like I have never heard him cackle before. He was having so much fun just being there with me and I was just so present in that moment. It was probably one of the happiest moments that I’ve had in my life. And I believe that being present allows us to live happier lives.

There you have a personal life story and a meaning that I took from that. I can now archive that story to draw upon later should I ever need it for an impromptu speech.

So archive stories and their core messages or morals and you can pull from it and deliver a great presentation.

Tip#4: Learn how to make connections between different topics

Tip number four is to learn how to make connections between seemingly unrelated topics.

Try and make interesting links between two things that you wouldn’t normally think to be related in anyway. Learning how to connect two things helps us to create stories and connect them with a core message.

The best and the most effective way I’ve found of doing this is by playing the Noun Game (or other fun public speaking activities). Start with two randomly selected nouns and deliver a speech that relates these two things together.

My usual example is a mechanic and a cat. How can we relate a cat and a mechanic? They’re not seemingly related topics. But if we can effectively relate them into a story then it’s going to make our impromptu speeches a whole lot easier.

Being able to relate seemingly unrelated things will help you to create a funny and memorable speech.

Tip#5: Only speak for as long as necessary

And tip number five is to only speak as long as you need to.

Don’t waffle on. Don’t keep talking if you’ve delivered your core message and your speech has been successful. Understanding when to stop your presentation is just as important as understanding what to talk about.

Speaking too long could result in people remembering only how long your speech was and not what you said.

Keep your speeches as short as they need to be. Don’t waffle on and don’t talk for too long.

So there you have five tips on how to successfully deliver an impromptu speech. Go out there and practice and become a more powerful public speaker.

Doing the correct preparation can mean the difference between delivering a powerful speech and delivering a lacklustre speech that doesn’t make an impact. Preparing correctly for your speeches and presentations is a very important skill and it’s a very important part of public speaking.

So how can we most effectively prepare for our public speeches? Today I’ve got six steps to follow to help you better prepare.

Step#1: Select your topic AND core message

Step number one is to select your topic but to also select your core message.

Almost every guidebook for speech writing will say to choose your topic. It’s an obvious starting place. But a lot of people miss out the fact that you need to also select the core message that you want to get across.

I could have a topic like global warming. From this I could have a core message about the need to:

invest in clean energy

reduce our emissions

plant more trees.

The same topic can deliver a lot of different core messages.

Getting clear on your core message and exactly what you want to deliver to your audience will help you frame the rest of your preparations.

Step#2: Create a structure

Step number two is to create a structure for your speech.

Speeches are generally nothing without structure. This is the pattern or journey or flow that is inherent in the speech. Your audience will likely find the speech confusing if it does not have structure.

You can see that my structure here is centred on my six steps. But there are many different ways that you can structure your speech or create an outline. I have made two different videos on how to create a speech outline and a speech outline example that you can check out.

Step#3: Write the speech

I deliver daily videos for Public Speaking Power as well as other websites. I don’t have the time to sit down and write exactly what I want to say during my presentations. So I will create a speech outline and then wing it in front of the camera.

But I would go into more detail if I were giving a more formal presentation or if I were getting paid by someone to speak. I would write out my speech and get used to the flow of my speech and learn it. So writing out your speech can be a very effective way of preparing.

Step#4: Practise with gestures

Step number four is to then practise your speech with gestures.

We don’t just want to add gestures to our speech because gestures will come naturally. I have talked in detail about using gestures.

But we need to practise our speech using gestures in front of a mirror or in front of the video camera. You can plan out gestures if you want but I think this is more likely to confuse you because you’ll be trying to remember so many things.

So practise your speech and make sure that it flows well. Then use and practise your gestures.

Make sure that they seem ordinary and that you’re not doing anything weird or uncomfortable. Your gestures should be natural and not obtrusive.

Step#5: Practise with an audience

Step number five is to practise in front of people and get feedback.

This is most important if you’re giving an important speech or presentation.

Practising by yourself is great but speaking in front of someone will heighten your natural ability to identify anything that feels or sounds silly.

You could do this with a spouse or your children or one of your friends. Simply getting up in front of someone who can give you feedback will allow you to better understand when something is flowing and when it isn’t.

You will also get the added benefit of the feedback that the person provides us.

Step#6: Learn and improve

And step number six is to learn and improve after you deliver your speech.

So don’t deliver your speech and immediately put it out of your mind. You’re likely to have to give multiple public speeches throughout your life. So it’s important to learn from every single experience that you have and to become a better public speaker.

Think about the things that you did well. You could even list them on a piece of paper or in your head.

And then consider what you could improve upon. Don’t question what you did wrong – this will only bring your morale down and lessen your confidence. Instead identify your weaker points and think of ways that you can better yourself next time.

So there you have six steps to help you prepare for a public speech and to help you become a more powerful and effective public speaker.

Do you want to muscle up your public speaking skills? Or do you want to pick up your fear of public speaking and throw it out the window? Maybe you should consider a public speaking boot camp.

Today I’m going to show you five activities that you can do to bulk up your skills and boost your confidence in public speaking.

These activities can be done from the comfort and privacy of your own home and should only take five to ten minutes. You could even do them with a group of friends to help you overcome any fears you have of speaking in front of others.

These activities are designed so that you can do one each and every day to grow your public speaking skills. You could do them when you first wake up in the morning or when you’ve come home from work at night.

Simply do these activities and practise these skills and you will see yourself progress as a public speaker.

#1: Five minutes of speaking Non-Stop

Activity number one will require a phone or any video recording device.

This activity should only take about ten minutes. Set up your phone or video camera, press record and start speaking. Then you’re going to speak non-stop for five minutes on any topic you like. You could also use a topic generator if you’d like to be given a random subject.

The idea is for you to become comfortable in front of the camera. Practise speaking comfortably without hesitations or embarrassment. Don’t stop speaking if you make a mistake or fumble your sentences.

This activity will help you get used to making mistakes. It will also teach you to roll with those mistakes. Much of public speaking confidence comes from being able to make and fix mistakes during your presentation.

When you’ve finished your video you’re going to watch it back. This will do two things.

Firstly, it will help you get used to the sound of your own voice. You will always sound different to your own ears then you will to other people or when coming through a video. This is why it’s so important to listen to yourself back. We need to get over the fear of sounding silly.

Secondly, it will get you used to seeing yourself on camera – to seeing yourself as your audience sees you. This will help you become comfortable and confident standing in front of people as a public speaker.

This is the most important activity that you could complete from this whole set. Make sure to practice it often.

#2: Four different openings

The second activity is to create four different openings for the same speech.

The four basic introductions for a speech involve opening with a quote, a question, a factoid or a story. There are obviously other ways but these are the four most common and effective methods.

So for this day’s activity you first need to pick a topic. Again you can use our topic generator or make it up yourself. The idea is to create four separate openings for that one speech.

Speaking in public is all about getting a message across. It doesn’t matter how you do it. So practising these different public speaking introductions will train your mind to communicate your message in different ways.

Practising this activity will eventually show you if you are more effective at one way of opening than the others. Similarly it could teach you if a certain introduction works better for certain topics.

But ultimately it will improve your speaking skills and provide you with valuable experience in audience engagement.

#3: Speaking without “umming”

On day three you’re going to speak without using filler words.

Words like “umm” or “err” or “you know” can become distracting in a speech. You may not even realise you are saying them.

So – like we did on day one – you’re going to film yourself speaking non-stop for five minutes. Doing this will help you understand what words you’re saying consistently that you shouldn’t be. Then you can work to delete those from your vocabulary.

If you find yourself umming and erring halfway through those five minutes you should start again.

The whole idea of this activity is to train yourself to recognise the filler words that you use and to replace them with pauses. This is a more natural way to speak in front of a crowd and will help you to exude confidence.

#4: Five minutes of eccentricity

Day number four requires you to be eccentric for five minutes.

This activity is all about stepping outside of your shell. Not everyone has the natural capacity to be super excited all of the time. So it is important to practise being pumped up and enthusiastic in your speech. Practice being eccentric.

We need to be eccentric in our voice. We need to talk louder and more excited. Try jumping up and down or running. Use big hand gestures. Do anything that gives your presentation energy.

These are obviously not things that you would do for a real speech. But if you practise being eccentric it is easy to scale the energy back. It is far more difficult to start conservatively and then “up” our energy levels.

Get used to being happy and hyperactive. A presentation is not just about delivering information. It also requires emotion.

Being eccentric for five minutes – and again film yourself – will get you used to watching yourself being crazy and you will become a more confident public speaker. You will know how you look and you won’t be embarrassed. Even if you’re being stupid.

#5: The Noun Game

On the last day of boot camp is the Noun Game.

This can be done in either of two ways. You can play the Noun Game for one minute each and do it five times over. Or you can just play it once for five minutes.

For this activity you’re going to want to pick two random nouns – two “naming words” or things. You can use a noun generator if you like.

Then you are going to create a story or a speech about those two nouns. See how you can connect them together.

Let’s look at an example. Say your nouns are “mechanic” and “cat”. You can either speak for five minutes straight or tell five different one-minute stories. The idea is to speak confidently and non-stop about these nouns. Talk about a mechanic who was forever being interrupted by his cat. Or about a cat who thwarted the efforts of an evil mechanic. Or about Larry the Cat who defied all the odds to become the best mechanic in the Southern Hemisphere.

The content of your speeches doesn’t matter. This activity will help you gain confidence in thinking off the top of your head for impromptu story-telling.

Creating a link between two things that seem unrelated is a powerful gift when you’re a public speaker. Taking two concepts and somehow connecting them together creates a better understanding for the audience and helps to get your message across.

The Noun Game is one of my favourite games. It can help you to become a confident and effective public speaker.

And remember – one of the major confidence boosters for public speakers is being able to make mistakes and to roll with them. Many of us fear that we’re going to stumble and forget our words. We dread the thought of standing in front of a crowd with nothing to say.

But the Noun Game – and all of these other activites –will help you learn to think on your feet. You’ll learn how to make mistakes and how to overcome those mistakes and keep moving forward.

And when that happens you will no longer have to be afraid.

So there you have five daily activities that you can do for a public speaking boot camp. If you get to day five and you want to go again, then go again.

There is so much fear around public speaking that I want to discuss how you can gain confidence in your speaking skills. These five techniques will help you improve your confidence in your speaking ability.

The most common questions around public speaking all revolve around topics such as nervousness about public speaking, fear, being afraid, having anxiety and not being able to get up in front of a crowd.

These are very common concerns, but it is possible to grow your confidence and become an effective public speaker (without the sweaty palms and fast racing heart).

How Can You Gain Confidence In Your Speaking Skills?

Here are the 5 ways you can gain confidence in your speaking skills.

1. Study

The first way which is actually probably the least effective way and that is to study.

Public speaking is a lot like swimming or surfing – you have to get wet in order to get better. By that I mean you have to practice the skill by speaking in order to get better at speaking.

By studying swimming it’s very hard to become a great swimmer. But studying is still important because we still need to learn technique. So study by reading about public speaking or watching a video (just like the ones on this blog). There is another blog called 6 minutes which is worth a look also.

You can also look at some of the greatest speeches of all time. Go to TED.com and look at some of their best speeches, look at what these people do well and what make a good speech.

2. Just Practice

Practice getting up in front of people, or if you can’t do that just practice in the comfort and privacy of your own home.

By creating speeches, by practicing speeches and by doing public speaking activities that are designed to improve your skills you will gain confidence and you will get better at speaking in public.

3. Get Positive Feedback

Whenever you give a speech try and ask someone you love and someone who you trust, to give you some feedback. Ask them specifically; in what areas did you do well? And in what areas are there to improve on.

Don’t just ask them for areas on improvement because it is going to deflate you. Constructive criticism is great but when it’s all constructive and it’s all criticism, sometimes it can get you down.

When it’s something as emotional as public speaking, ask for praise before you ask for criticism as well. There’s a lot of people out there who are willing to criticise how you speak in public, but there’s not enough people to praise you for getting up there and having a go. So make sure you get some positive feedback.

4. Make Mistakes, and learn from them

One of the biggest ways that I’ve gained confidence in public speaking is that I’ve made mistakes, and then recovered from those mistakes.

I think is one of the biggest fears about public speaking is that if something happens or if something goes wrong, you need to be able to think on the spot, you need to be able to correct that and roll with that otherwise it’s going to be a very embarrassing situation for you.

So by being in a situation by making mistakes where you stumble and when you have to recover, then you become better at thinking on the spot. Then your confidence grows because you know “well if another mistake happens in the future, if another situation comes about where I might not know about what I’m doing or might lose my place, I might get interrupted, well, I know how to handle that and I know I can handle that.”

By making mistakes, you can learn from those mistakes and that will grow your confidence, probably more so than anything else.

5. Record Yourself On Video

Number five is to record yourself on video preferably or if not on audio.

This is great because it trains you how to think on the spot, how to present in front of people, and you can do it from the comfort and privacy of your own home. By recording yourself on video you get that added benefit that you get to watch yourself back.

This builds your confidence in two different ways.

Firstly and probably the more obvious way, is the fact that we see the mistakes we can make and correct them. So if were watching ourselves on video and listening to ourselves we can see when we’re saying things we shouldn’t be saying or making actions we shouldn’t be making. We can then change that in the presentations.

But secondly the reason that this builds confidence is because you know that feeling they have when you listen to yourself and it just sounds so horrible?

Because we perceive the world from inside our mind when you listen to your voice it sounds different and when you’re watching yourself it’s a mirror.

By watching yourself and by listening yourself you get used to the way you look and sound and that builds confidence because you realise; “well hey I don’t sound like a complete idiot and I look quite normal.”

By becoming comfortable with watching yourself and listening to yourself your confidence will build naturally from that.

So there you have five ways that you can gain confidence in your speaking ability without actually getting any better.

Much like riding a bike public speaking is a skill that is best learned through practice. And what happens when we enjoy doing something that we do? We do it more often.

So here are 15 fun public speaking activities that you can do, either by yourself or with a group of people or if you are running a class you can use this using with your students as well. (more public speaking activities here)

What Are The 15 Fun Public Speaking Activities?

I truly believe that making public speaking fun is one of the things that are going to take an average public speaker and give then enough practice to turn them into a good or great public speaker.

1. My Friend’s Fictional Life

In this activity, what you do is you get up in front of people (you can do it home by yourself as well) and you take one of your friends and you introduce them. However, instead of introducing them in the normal way you make up a fictional life for them.

So you say, hi this is Jane Smith, and she actually moonlights as a jazz pianist for the underground mafia. And you talk about her life, whatever it may be.

So this is fun because it makes you been creative, it’s very easy to think of these things on the spot and just roll with it. It’s generally pretty funny as well.

2. Impromtu Game

You basically just get up in front of people and somebody gives you something impromptu to run with.

It might be a topic, it might be a sentence or it might just be a single word or anything like that. But generally we run with just a certain topic.

For example: They need to talk about climate change or they need to talk about what makes a great teacher, or they need to talk about social media changes or whatever. So that the impromptu game.

3. Funny Image Game

This is similar to the impromptu game, but basically what you do is you give the speaker a funny image; you can find these easily just searching through Google and you get them to talk about that image.

You can pretend it’s their life experience and how this impacted my life or they can talk about why this image is important and what this image means or what’s the story behind this image.

4. Continuous Story

This is best done with a group of people. Each person gets up and might speak for anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute and they start telling a story.

And when their time is up, the next person has to get up and they have to continue the story.

So, obviously each person doesn’t know what the person before them is going to say and so they have to continue the story.

The goal of this is to make the story make sense. This game helps people engage in listening and learn to be creative enough to make the story continue on and make sense.

5. Something In My Wallet

You can use your own wallet or (if people are comfortable enough and happy to do it) you can get the person sitting next to you’s wallet.

Take an item out of the wallet and discuss what this item is and why its important and obviously you are trying to elaborate and make it funny as much as possible.

6. Action Story

This can be done in 2 ways.

A) You tell a story that has a whole great of actions in it and as a speaker you have to do these actions yourself whilst speaking.

B) Or the audience has to do the actions themselves while the speaker is giving their speech.

So you could say; I did a big stretch when I woke up in the morning. And everybody has to stretch. And then you say, I put on my hat, and everybody has to do the actions in line with that.

7. Make A Commercial

Get a bunch of things from your room or from your house, bring them in and you need to make a commercial about these items.

Someone is giving a random product. It might be a deodorant, might be an iphone, it could be anything. And then they are required to give a 30 second to 1 minute commercial on this product and talk about why this is so awesome and why people should buy it. So that’s a really fun one as well.

8. A Fake Holiday

This one is done with images primarily and a set of images that are related to each other.

So it could be a farm where you have images of animals, or the barn house or something funny happening on the farm.

The speaker is required to tell maybe 1, 2 or 3 sentences for each image and then you click forward to the next image.

Then they need to use the next image to continue the story.

So you are using these images as the key cards, as to where the story needs to go so the person needs to adapt the story based on the images that are given.

9. Alternative Ending

You take a well known TV show or a well-known movie. And what you do is you create an alternative ending for it.

10. Connect The Nouns

This is really a fun one, I really like this one.

You can do this by either putting nouns on key cards shuffling them up and picking 2 up at a time or you can use this random noun generator.

You get 2 nouns and you then have to create a story that connects that 2 nouns.

So it might be ‘a sheep’ and ‘a mechanic’ or it could be ‘friend’ and ‘shoelace’.

Then you have to create a story that connects those 2 nouns together.

11. How It Got It’s Name

Take an item (for example: packing tape) and you need to create a story around a packing tape and why it’s got its name that way.

You have to make it exciting.

12. Oink Substitution

When you are giving a speech you must allocate one word that you have to replace with word ‘oink’. Or you can use ‘moo’ or you use ‘woof’ or whatever it is that you want.

So you can use the word ‘I’ and replace it with ‘oink’.

So you would say: “Oink went to the movies and oink bought some popcorn.” And so you replace that word ‘I’ with ‘oink’.

This challenges your mind, and it makes that little bit harder to deliver a presentation. And it’s pretty funny for the audience, as well.

13. Which Is A Lie?

This one is generally pretty easy to out work and a lot of fun as well. And you will find that some students do it really well, but then some students just fumble when they are tying to lie and its quiet humorous to watch.

A person gets up and tells 3 truths about themselves, but 2 of them need to be true and one of them needs to be a lie.

So they get up and they tell 3 things about themselves and then the audience needs to choose which one was a lie and they see if they were correct.

So this one is really quick, really easy and you don’t have to go into a great detail about it but it can be really fun.

14. Definitions

Get really big words that nobody really knows what the meaning is. You can do this using this big word generator or another tool (just Google it). Or you can just go through the dictionary and pick some strange ones yourself.

The speaker has to get up – they are given this strange word and they need to with confidence tell the class what this word means.

Obviously they are making it up, but they need to do it confidently.

15. Endings

You give a person an ending. It could be a saying: “Diamonds are forever” or an ending to a story ‘and the man cried for 3 days’.

You give them an ending and they have to create a story that matches up with that ending.

A lot of being a great pubic speaking is about story telling. Teaching people how to creatively think up stories on the spot is going to make them a better public speaker.

Public speaking is an extremely valuable tool that can help you achieve great things in life. In this article I am going to discuss how public speaking can help you.

Public speaking is stated as the number one fear above anything else. But learning how to master the art of public speaking can be extremely beneficial to you in many different facets of your life.

So let’s break it down and look at some of the areas that public speaking can help us in our lives.

1: Further your career

Your career or your business is one of the places where public speaking is more beneficial than almost anywhere else.

Using strong public speaking skills can give you a great leg up over your peers and over people you’re competing against for different positions.

Public speaking can help you impress your boss. You can make a great impression if you’re confident in giving presentations in front of a crowd. Your boss might choose you to give more presentations in future because they know that it’s going to make them look good.

You can be seen as a thought leader and a stand-out performer. Be confident and capable of getting up in front of a crowd and you could be seen as one of the best workers in the company.

Standing up and talking about what you’re doing will make people perceive you to be better than other people because they know you.

2: Create context in your networks

It is important to create context in your professional network and for the people above you who are more likely to promote you.

You’re more likely to be seen by upper management if you’re able to speak in public and get up in front of a crowd. This creates context and a relationship – even if not a one-on-one relationship – so they can now interact with you.

They understand who you are. So when a job comes up and they’re looking through résumés yours will stand out because they know who you are.

Public speaking also helps you expand your professional network. You can inspire greater change and be seen as management material if you’re an effective public speaker.

And you will likely get more of those opportunities to present and be seen by your peers and by upper management.

3: Improve your self-confidence

Public speaking is great at building your self-confidence.

It’s difficult at first because public speaking is so scary. You feel so awkward or you don’t like the way you sound.

But you will build confident in the way you present yourself over time. It allows you to be confident not just in a public speaking situation but in a variety of social situations. You can be prepared for things like job interviews or business meetings.

You can also learn to think and act on the spot. Being good at thinking on the spot and “winging it” when you go into social situations will make you feel less stressed because you’ll know that you can handle whatever happens.

Build your self-confident and get positive feedback or constructive criticism from people. You can then continue to grow and become better at communicating.

4: Improve your social life

Public speaking can be very beneficial to you in your social life as well.

It allows you to react on the spot and not get so worried about what’s going to happen because you’re an effective communicator. It’s not going to be awkward.

You’ll become a good story teller as well. A great deal of public speaking is about being able to tell stories. That’s what keeps people engaged.

Experience with public speaking will teach you which stories get a good reaction and which ones don’t. You can then use that in social situations to keep the conversation flowing.

5: Become a better thinker

Public speaking is good for your mind.

It can improve your critical thinking skills and make you a better and faster problem solver.

I believe that the best way to learn something is to teach it. I myself am not some award-winning public speaker. But I am learning about public speaking through teaching it.

Public speaking will stimulate your brain to learn topics even better than your peers. It will help you clarify your own thoughts and beliefs. Being confident to speak to people about your passions will also stimulate conversation.

Your ideas can sound very different when they’re thought and when they’re spoken. And so it helps you clarify your mind. And it helps you think at a higher level to your peers and improve your thought processes.

6: Become more influential

Public speaking will also help you with your influence.

You’re almost always are going to need to learn how to speak in public if you want to be influential. I think the only exception to this is people who run very successful blogs or newspaper articles where they have gained their influence through writing and not through speaking.

Video is soon going to take over text as the main form of content on the internet. This just shows that people who are happy to get up and speak – whether that is in front of people or in front of a camera – are going to gain more influence than those who are hiding behind a keyboard.

You’re more likely going to be able to lead a team. If you can speak to a group then you can almost always lead a group as well. You’re going to get more opportunities to lead teams and have greater influence there.

You can also have your thoughts heard. If you’ve got these great ideas but you never speak them out then no one’s going to hear them. Being a good public speaker means you can have your thoughts heard and make the world around you a better place and build up your influence.

7: Better your relationships

Public speaking is all about communication.

Some people believe that it is 70% body language, 20% tone and only 10% what you say. I think this is complete nonsense.

It’s about getting a message across from one person to another. Sometimes it won’t matter if you have the best structure or the best abilities in the world. If you’re talking about something that just means nothing to me then I’m not going to want to listen – no matter how good you are.

Communication is so important when it comes to your marriage and your family. Public speaking can help you become a better communicator within all of your relationships.

It will allow you to get the family to work together towards a common goal. It’s a big thing with public speaking. You’re rallying an audience towards one key message. You can do that with your family as well.

And because you’re going to become a better story teller, you can maintain attention in conversation at the dinner table.

8: Become a better everyday communicator

And public speaking will help you become a better everyday communicator.

Speaking in public will help you to remove a lot of poor communication habits. You will come to recognise your stutters or your hand moments or whatever awkward thing you may do.

Removing poor communications habits allows you to replace them with better ones. You can become better at communicating on the phone or via email and just in your everyday life.

So there you have some of the different ways that public speaking can help you become more successful in your life.

Just like any skill, public speaking requires practice if you want to improve. These 10 activities for public speaking have helped me become a better public speaker and will help you also.

Most activities for public speaking focus around the technical ability to speak. Word games, tongue twisters and voice warm up activities all exist to help you train your voice to be more accurate. However, the main thing that holds people back from speaking in public is not the proper use of their voice, it is the fear of public speaking itself.

I have devised 10 real life activities that will help you deal with the fear of public speaking and help grow your confidence and minimise your anxiety.

The hardest speech you will ever give is usually your first speech

I have found that as my public speaking experience grows, so does my confidence.

10 Real Life Activities For Public Speaking

Here are the 10 activities. Don’t try to complete them all at once. Choose just one and work on that.

1. Record yourself on a video

I have found this to be THE most effective activity if you want to become a better public speaker.

Set up your laptop and stand in front of it, or set up your phone, and record yourself giving a speech. It might be the speech you are preparing for or it might be talking in general and then watch yourself back.

Look at the things you do and the things that you say and see what you are doing right and wrong so you can correct it. By watching yourself you control the odd things you do and it also builds confidence.

2. Practice the Kramer technique

In Seinfeld Kramer used to always run into Jerry’s apartment and make this big entrance that interrupted anything that was happening in the show.

By “the Kramer technique” I mean that you should practice for interruptions.

Create circumstances where you are interrupted when your speaking. Maybe you can throw your cue cards up in the air half way through your speech, or pretend that your power point presentation fails or pretend you have lost your train of thought.

3. The impromptu activity

Create an impromptu speech and you can even tie this in with activity #1 – filming yourself. Think about a random topic and try to create a speech around that topic.

Set a time limit around 5-10 and practice being impromptu and speaking off the cuff. I have created a blog post all about winging it if you want more information.

You can also use something like a word generator to get ideas if you cannot think of topics to talk about yourself or if you want a bit of a challenge.

4. Reverse the order of your speech

Often when creating a speech we learn the progression of our speech. Point #1 leads into point #2.

This is fine when everything goes to plan but creates issues if you lose your train of thought or miss a point. By missing a point or important story you can lose your place completely as your mind is relying on mental cues that may not occur to remember and deliver your speech.

By altering the order of your speech you will learn your content better so when mistakes are made or interruptions occur in real life you will be able to get back on track quickly.

So mix it up. Start with your conclusion and deliver your important points backwards. Or jumble the order of your key points so they are random.

5. Pretend you are speaking to 5 year olds

They say if you can’t explain your topic or key message to a 5 year old then you don’t know your topic well enough.

This comes downs to simplifying the essence of your presentation and getting the essence out.

Many people, when giving a public speech, are so focused on their structure that they forget about the core message of the speech and getting that out.

Getting your message across is the most important thing about your presentation and sometimes we can “lose the forest for the trees” and forget about our message. Simplifying it for a 5 year old can help you keep your key message as the core of your presentation.

6. Start a podcast about your topic (or at least record yourself)

For me I have multiple podcasts that I record on a weekly basis. Some audio podcasts and some video podcasts.

I am improving my public speaking skills by creating content for an audience.

Once of the reasons people don’t get better at public speaking is because they never do it. If we create a podcast and it is going out to an audience it forces your mind to think about public speaking more and get better at it.

It also gives you valuable feedback, either by listening to it yourself, or from your audience to see what podcast episodes are popular and what topics interest people.

7. Relate any subject to your one particular story

Maybe you have a few stories that articulate a certain or a single story for each individual point.

What you can do to become better at public speaking is to choose just one story from your speech and make every single point come out of that one story.

This forces your mind to think creatively as you need to be able to draw multiple lessons from a single story. By limiting what you have to work with you expand your mind and your public speaking abilities.

8. Take a news article from today and put it into your speech

Go to a news site like news.com or news.com.au and seek out a news article from today (not yesterday or last month) and find a way to put that into your speech.

This is a challenge because you need to take an example that may not be related to your field of expertise or your topic in general and bring it into your presentation.

9. Condense your speech to one point (and then only talk about that point for the entirety of your speech)

So let’s say you are giving a 30 minute speech and you have 5 points. Strip those 5 points and choose just 1 point.

Now, how can you create the same length speech for just that one point in your speech. This will help challenge you to communicate more effectively but will also help you to know your content better.

10. Watch a TED Talk

Choose from this list of TED talks or go to TED.com and watch a TED talk. They are some of the best talks in the world, very inspiring and people prepare like crazy to make these presentations.

I find TED talks better to watch than Toastmasters presentations because at a TED talk the speaker is trying to get a message across. In toastmasters the speaker is trying to show their public speaking skills…two very different goals.

This is people talking about their fields of study and their expertise and their goal is to get their message across.

Watch the TED talk and ask yourself “what did they do well”, “what body language did they use”, “how did they use stories to get their message across” etc.